


Do as I say not as I do

by rockbrigade



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:33:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26782195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockbrigade/pseuds/rockbrigade
Summary: Space AU ficlet. Echizen gets a full debriefing after his fighter pilot mission aboard the ISEF Seigaku (from our Space AU)
Relationships: Echizen Ryouma/Tezuka Kunimitsu
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Do as I say not as I do

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SolosOrca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolosOrca/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Meeting](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10819578) by [SolosOrca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolosOrca/pseuds/SolosOrca). 



> Happy birthday Orca!! RyoTezu rights!!

Ryoma mashed the call button for the gravlift, glancing over his shoulder once or twice and tapping an impatient foot. The lift touched down and the doors slid open, but Ryoma's relief lasted about as long as the vague "ding" noise that signified the gravlift's arrival. The doors pulled aside and Tachibana burst out of them. 

"ARE YOU CRAZY??" She demanded, arms outstretched and fingers bent and stiff as if she was repressing an urge to grab Ryoma by the collar of his pilot suit and shake him. 

Ryoma blinked, considering her question. Then, he breezed by her with a hum. "I passed my psyche eval, though." 

"Echizen! Wait!" Tachibana wheeled around and jammed her boot in the path of the already-closing gravlift door, "Are you even gonna explain what you did out in Red One today??" She bent forward just slightly, peering intently at his face. He kept his steely glance on her so she would know he wasn't intimidated. He wasn't. 

But his eyes flicked away after a pause, "I saw the Empire planes off," he said simply, "I completed the mission." 

"Mission? Oh for Space's sa--" Tachibana was interrupted by the gravlift door, giving a soft ding of distress, confused as to why the door wouldn't close. She harrumphed and stepped -- much to Ryoma's disappointment -- inside the gravlift with him. "Listen, just because you're squad leader, doesn't mean you get to pull crazy stunts like that!" 

Ryoma hummed again, "Actually, I think it does…" 

Tachibana slammed her fist against the side of the gravlift, "Maybe I'm supposed to answer to you, but I'm not answering to any pilot who's asking me to commit suicide!" 

"When did I ask you to do that?" Ryoma sighed, but he felt his face starting to burn with annoyance; he tilted his face towards the floor as if to disguise it with his sweat-matted fringe, "and besides, it's not 'suicide'. I knew it would work. I'm here, aren't I?" 

She screwed her face in the most horrendous scowl Ryoma had ever seen, but she bit back what she was about to say and sighed heavily through her flaring nostrils. "Doesn't mean you get to go it alone, either," she muttered finally, "we're supposed to be a team, Echizen!"

The gravlift dinged happily and the doors slid aside to reveal the bridge. Ryoma glanced at the bridge crew, and then back to Tachibana. "We are," he said, with a loose shrug, and sauntered out towards the Captain's chair. He still had some of his bravado in his tone as he stood in front of the chair and gave a vague salute. "Flight officer Echizen, reportin--" and then he saw the Captain's face. It was always like that, sure, but today it was Extra Like That. 

Tezuka began to rise from his seat, without taking his eyes off Ryoma. "To my ready-room, if you will?" he said with the kind of calm that comes just before a thunderclap. Ryoma nodded, almost sheepish now, and led the way to the little office Tezuka kept just to the side of the bridge. 

With that cool hiss of machine-work, the door capitulated to Ryoma's frame and granted him entry. He shuffled into the room, with its subdued but classy couches and imposing desk, and of course, intimidating bookcases, and stood to attention in the middle of the room fiddling with his fingers. Tezuka paused in the doorway. "Only disturb me for Priority One communications," he said to the bridge crew, and then pressed the keypad on the inside of the door to force it locked. 

The room was soundproof, and with the door firmly locked, Ryoma could hear only his heartbeat, pounding in his ears, and then the sound of the Captain's footsteps as he took himself sharply across the room and behind the desk. Tezuka sat, arranged himself in his chair, and steepled his fingers just in front of his nose. And then he was silent.

The silence of the room lasted what felt like whole days, and Ryoma was starting to wonder if he was breathing too loud. But finally, without looking up, the Captain said, "Echizen," and Ryoma braced himself for the storm he could feel brewing in the Captain's aura. "What in the name of all Space," Tezuka began, and Ryoma flinched to hear his Captain use the expletive form, "did you think you were doing, breaking formation to dog an enemy gunship?" 

There was a pause, and by now Ryoma could almost feel the heat of the blue flame cooking Tezuka's aura into pure rage. "Wel--" 

"Is that protocol? Or have you decided that ISEF's protocols, and with them, my leadership, are not good enough for you?" Those sharp brown eyes threw their daggers at Ryoma now, after an eternity of disgusted aversion. Having been baited by the rhetorical just moments before, Ryoma now bit his tongue, but Tezuka pursued, "Have you no answer, Echizen?" 

"Captain," Ryoma began, but he knew there was no way to tread the company line and explain his movements. "I noticed that that particular gunship was marking Red One's movements. It was like a game of chicken. Again and again, it rolled through the formation's gunfire and flew up to Red One, only to speed away at the last moment." Tezuka shifted in his chair and it startled Ryoma, but he carried on, trying to bluff it out, "So I saw there was an opportunity-- if I got closer to the asteroid belt--" 

"I understand your reasoning, Echizen. What I don't understand is how-- How--" Tezuka exhaled, and it was a ragged, deep breath, and Ryoma thought he saw flames licking at the edges of them, "How my ace pilot could endanger himself like that." 

Ryoma blinked. Tezuka glanced away. Hmmm, maybe it wasn't the fires of rage? Maybe it wasn't the flames of hatred… maybe this heat was…? Ryoma slid his tongue out and licked his top lip, slowly. He walked into this debriefing feeling like he'd been caught on the wing, and now Tezuka had just placed the ignition keys in his palm. Alright then. 

"Do you wanna know how 'your' ace pilot learned this manoeuvre?" He twisted his lips to stop himself from grinning, but it wasn't working, "I saw it in the footage of this one hotshot pilot from a few years back… called something-something Kunimitsu, if I remember correc--" 

"Enough. This is not about me." Tezuka was able to meet his eyes again, with one burning flash of some intense and very-repressed emotion. "I am asking how you can endanger yourself. I'm asking why you were so reckless." 

Ryoma shrugged, and he smirked after all, "The mission. Well, they retreated right?" 

"You know I cannot permit my pilots to risk their lives for the sake of the mission," Tezuka said. He tapped away at his tablet computer, probably drawing up disciplinary files. 

"How sweet, I'll tell Tachibana and Kikumaru you're going to wrap us up in cotton wool," Ryoma said with all the coolness he could find while his blood seemed to run so hot beneath the fixings of his pilot suit. "We're pilots. Risking our lives is what we do," he said, in a tone not appropriate for one officer to address his Captain with. Tezuka stood, scraping the legs of his chair backwards as he went, and slammed his hands on the surface of his desk. 

"And I am the Captain, and my orders are what keep my crew alive, or what sends them to their deaths, and I will not," He stood to his full height, "I will not lose YOU." 

Ryoma took in a breath, but it was shaky. He slowly clenched his hands and made the pilot suit material squeak as he did. Tezuka glanced down, away from him, but Ryoma could see his chest heaving. 

"But I didn't die," Ryoma said, in a way that surprised even him with its gentleness, "The enemy crashed and I pulled away. I'm safe." Tezuka was trembling. "…I'm HERE," Ryoma persisted. And it broke the atmosphere like a deluge of rain. Tezuka had his arms around Ryoma's waist, and he pulled their bodies together -- a pretty risque move while Ryoma was still in his skin-tight pilot suit. 

"I can't condone the breaking of the rules," Tezuka said, his voice practically muffled as his lips lingered just above Ryoma's jaw, only milimeters of space between them. 

"I know," Ryoma said, sliding his hand under Tezuka's uniform jacket, "that's why you're in a totally sanctioned relationship that's totally public," he teased his way under the fabric until he found a place that made Tezuka draw a breath, "because rule-breakers get punished." 

Tezuka submitted. He shuddered, trembled against Ryoma's body, like with each tiny movement, he released a little more of his inhibitions. He took to Ryoma's lips with a hunger like he'd been starved for just his taste, and Ryoma laughed and smirked little gaps of air between the flows of their movement. And then, the rush stopped. Tezuka tilted his forehead against Ryoma's. "Thank the Universe, thank the Universe you were okay," he muttered, and this strange, passionate admission struck Ryoma's heart in a place he didn't think existed. "Oh, however am I going to punish you now?" Tezuka said, softly hopeless in Ryoma's arms.


End file.
